Mckayla
Feminine · “who is like God?”
Mckayla is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 13,225 girls against 5 boys since 1880.
Mckayla is Michaela rewritten so that the sound comes first — and in doing so it picked up a Scottish prefix that means son of, which is a small oddity worth knowing about.
How old is the name Mckayla?
Mckayla first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Mckayla alive today was born around 2003, making them about 22 years old. About 13,000 people named Mckayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Mckayla most popular?
Mckayla peaked in 1998, reaching #370 nationally. Today it ranks #3167, 2,797 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Mckayla appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Mikhael to Mckayla
The story of Mckayla
Michael is one of the great names of Judaism, Christianity and Islam alike, and its feminine forms — Michaela, Micaela, Michelle — spread across Europe in the Middle Ages. American records of the late twentieth century respelled the sound in every possible way, and Mckayla, Makayla, Mikayla and Michaela all appear in quantity within a few years of one another. The Mc- spelling belongs to a moment when Scottish and Irish surnames were widely used as first names.
Meaning
who is like God?
Michaela is the feminine of Michael, a Hebrew rhetorical question rather than a statement. The Mc- at the front of this spelling is the Gaelic word for son and is not part of the original name; it entered the spelling because the sound invited it.
How the name formed
- Mikhael
- Michael
- Michaela
- Mckayla
Related forms: Michaela · Micaela · Michelle · Michaela
Pronouncing Mckayla
muh-KAY-luh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle. Identical to Makayla and Mikayla.
Nicknames for Mckayla
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 1998769 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #370reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −33.3%50 in 2025, from 75
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Mckayla in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Michaela in English — spelling variant
- Micaela in Spanish — same name
- Michelle in French — related form
- Michaela in Czech — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Mckaylas among us
people named Mckayla are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 32,145 born in 2025 was named Mckayla
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Queen test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Mckayla's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Queen climbed just as high around 1907, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Queen's path sketches the road Mckayla is walking now.
Mckayla sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Mckayla is headed
Mckayla is easing off slowly — about 22% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Mckayla beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Mckayla in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled meaning through Michael, one of the most documented names in existence.
- Kayla is a complete, familiar short form that stands entirely on its own.
- The sound is understood immediately by any English speaker.
- Makayla, Mikayla, Michaela and Mckayla are four live spellings and she will spell hers aloud for life.
- The Mc- suggests a Scottish or Irish surname that is not actually part of the name's history.
- Some systems capitalize it as McKayla and some as Mckayla, and both will appear on her documents.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Mckayla to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Mckayla? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Mckayla
Feminine · #3167 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Mckaylas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,000 people named Mckayla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Mckayla in 2025?
- Mckayla ranks #3167 among US girl names in 2025, with 50 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Mckayla?
- About 1 in every 32,145 US girls born in 2025 was named Mckayla — 50 in all.
- Will my child share the name Mckayla with classmates?
- Mckayla will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Mckayla
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lulu#3167 · Lucina#3167 · Irma#3167 · Leyna#3167 · Skylee#3167 · Amairani#3167 · Jorja#3167 · Jozie#3167
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Mckayla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Mckayla and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle